I know many of my readers are interested in the unfolding saga of the Moses Shapira “Deuteronomy” scroll that broke into worldwide headlines last March. If you missed the story or are a bit vague on the particulars, here is a post I did in mid-March, “A Shapira Dead Sea…
Ross Nichols, author of the new book, The Moses Scroll, is blogging this month on the fateful events of Moses Shapira’s life, beginning July 20, 1883 when he arrived in London with his “Deuteronomy strips.” There are various accounts here and there–from 1883 until our own time–of the events that followed,…
Many of my readers are aware of the publication of Ross Nichols’s new book, The Moses Scroll that chronicles the whole Moses Shapira Saga and the question of whether or not the 19th century “Dead Sea Scroll” was most likely ancient or a modern forgery. I just received word from Nichols…
Ross Nichols, author of the best documented and most up-to-date account of the entire Moses Shapira “Deuteronomy” scroll saga, The Moses Scroll, is a must read for anyone wanting to keep current with the latest archival search on the entire Shapira question–along with Idan Dershowitz’s recent published articles and book. I am…
I first heard of Moses Shapira in graduate school at the University of Chicago the summer of 1976. I remember the specific time as I was preparing for my Ph.D. exams, which included reading selections of the Dead Sea Scrolls in manuscript form. Fortunately, David Wilmot—who was a brilliant up-and-coming…
The following four essays were in response to a comprehensive essay exam I gave in my Dead Sea Scrolls course. They were written by my student Jeffrey Poplin and used with his permission. I thank Jeffrey for his superb work and happily pass these along to my blog readers: Essay One: Offer…
In 1883 fifteen leather strips found by Bedouin in caves on the east side of the Dead Sea came into possession of book and manuscript antiquities dealer Moses Shapira of Jerusalem. These ancient texts were written in Paleo-Hebrew and after painstaking reading and transcription of the faded letters by Shapira,…
Ross Nichols, author of the book,The Moses Scroll published last year, offers the best to date overview of the entire 19th century saga of Jerusalem antiquarian and bookseller, William Moses Shapira, and his sixteen leather strips inscribed in paleo-Hebrew purportedly discovered by Bedouin on the east side of the Dead Sea…
One year ago today, February 23, 2021, Ross Nichols published his new book, The Moses Scroll (Horeb Press). I wrote the preface for the book and Nichols and I had been working for over a year on the research, sharing what we uncovered. It was quite an adventure. While I finished my…
Biblical Archaeology Review has just named the “Shapira” Dead Sea Scrolls controversy in its annual “Top Ten” list of Biblical/Archaeological Stories, see full listing here: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/2021s-top-ten-stories-in-bhd/ Two major new books, Ross Nichols’s, The Moses Scroll and Idan Dershowitz’s The Valediction of Moses: A Proto-Biblical Book, came out within days of…